customer (un)appreciation day

Just a quick note about online mercantilism.  These days, with our economy hopefully rebounding - to me it makes more sense than ever to reward good business not only with repeat business, but by telling people about them.

I had a great experience with Mike over at Rene Herse.  It's  a very nice, old-timey, bicycle-touring themed shop that sells all sorts of lovely items.  I bought a Nitto M-12 front rack from them that for some odd reason snapped.  I told Mike about it, and he offered to take a look at it and either a. see if they could repair it or b. see if it was covered by the manufacturer's warranty.  He could've easily told me to take a hike but he didn't, and kept up great communication with me.  Turns out they've never seen a rack break like this so mine is covered and I get a brand new one.  Thanks Mike!  I highly recommend these guys if you are in the market for something special.  They sell all sorts of NOS, bicycle luggage, and of course beautiful bikes.

Contrast that to the jokers at bikesomewhere.com.  I ordered some tires from them, via amazon several weeks ago.  Amazon gives you an estimate for when your product should be delivered.  My original estimate was over a week ago.  When I got an email from Amazon saying that my order hadn't been shipped, I sent bikesomewhere an email asking about my order.  I called three times and left messages.  No response. I waited a couple of days (by now it was Jan 31) and no email response, but I finally get them on the phone.  They told me that the tires were on backorder. Usually that type of information is available right off the bat on Amazon, but not with these clowns. Had I known they'd have to back order them, I would've purchased them from someone else.   The tires finally came, but again hit another delay with some type of weather issue down in Florida.  Overall the communication was canned, inadequate and did not address my concerns.  Don't buy anything from them ever.  They don't care about their customers.